Inside a bus equipped with today's most modern technologies and infrastructure, forty students from an elite school are returning from a three-day excursion to visit the natural wonders of a mountain. Now, tired yet excited as they arrive in the familiar small town, some conversations around the bus become more audible, thanks to the raised voices of certain students.
"Oh my God, I'm exhausted! I can't stop thinking about getting home and merging with my bed!"
"Man, I'm crazy about a girl I met there when we were at the base camp, but I heard she's from Class B... I don't think it's even worth trying to talk to her, I'd get shot down right away."
"Seriously, whose idea was it for the bus to be self-driving this time? The only thing I wanted was to ask the driver to stop so I could stop feeling sick, but there's just no driver! What a rip-off!"
At the back of the bus, Noah is leaning against the wall, pretending to sleep while watching the last trees pass by the window and listening to the music saved on his phone. Indifferent to the conversations happening around him, he pays attention to how the faint afternoon sunlight filters through the leaves of the coniferous trees.
A few seconds later, the students fall silent, interrupted by a shrill sound coming from all corners of the bus. Realizing it's the speaker announcement, they listen attentively, hoping for news about their arrival.
"Bzzt. Seniors of Grand Four High School, I hope you enjoyed and took many pictures on our special excursion to Whistler Mountain! We hope you strengthened the bonds with your classmates and forged new friendships with students from other classes! You will be arriving in five minutes and will be dropped off in front of the school, so please remember to grab all your belongings and remind your guardians to pick you up," says the principal's recorded and somewhat robotic voice.
Amidst various sighs of relief and celebration at the news of their imminent arrival, Noah's attention is drawn to the conversation of two students sitting right next to him, who seem to be making fun of the principal's announcement. He turns his head and recognizes them as two students from Class D. The boy closer to Noah, wearing a designer jacket and with well-kept, wavy brown hair, gestures with his arms as he speaks.
"Grand Four, my ass! This school should be called Grand One or Grand Two, at most! Seriously, I came to this school because most successful people come from here and because it has the best infrastructure in the country, only to find out I've landed in the shittiest, worst class," the boy complains, irritated, while the other next to him laughs.
"It just seems like a system of segregation to leverage our own sense of competitiveness, to make us want to move up to the next class while we fear dropping to the one below," Noah responds. "In the end, we still receive the same level of education and the same infrastructure as the other classes, so it's not as bad as it seems."
"And what difference does it make, if it's practically impossible to be transferred between classes? When was the last time you saw someone get transferred to a higher class?"
"It would be easy to transfer if it was all about our skills. If you get bad grades, you're in Class D. If you study more and get better grades, you move up. But it doesn't work like that. It's entirely possible for someone in Class A to get worse grades than someone in Class D."
"Oh, right!" the boy replies, laughing ironically. "So let's just accept being in Class D. Is that your solution? Let's just trust the principal's divine judgment!" he throws his arms up, as if mocking a prayer to the principal.
"I'm just saying it's a waste of time to care about it. If in the end we still have the same conditions as the other students, what's the difference?"
The boy pouts and crosses his arms.
"And who are you, Mr. Know-it-all?" he asks, looking at Noah strangely for intruding on their conversation.
"Leo, he's in our class," his friend next to him replies, laughing.
"Oh!" Leo responds to his friend, laughing. "Yeah, right, how could I forget... uh..."
"Noah," Noah finishes for him.
"Yeah, Noah... Now I remember. I think I've seen you... umm... in... physics class? I think."
"Anyway, Noah, know this: I'm not as calm as you are about being in the worst class. And you shouldn't be either, it's an injustice!" Leo continues. "Who does this principal think he is to judge and classify our potential? Under any other circumstances, I'd have my family sue him," he says, irritably adjusting the collar of his jacket.
"Be careful of the hidden bugs on the bus," Noah replies with alert eyes, gesturing for him to be quiet.
Leo starts to look around anxiously, checking the walls, windows, and seats, until he sees Noah's expression, who seems to be holding back a laugh.
"I'm kidding," Noah says with a faint smile, as the other boy next to Leo starts laughing at his friend's predicament again.
Their interaction is suddenly interrupted by the screech of the bus's brakes.
"Whoa, looks like we're here," Noah comments, stretching.
All the teenagers begin to stand up and line up to get off. Some carry books; others, large backpacks; others, three pillows; but Noah carries only his phone, a notepad, and a pen. When they step outside, the forty students look around, confused and silent, feeling that something is missing. The usually noisy city is in a deafening silence; now, only the sound of distant birds can be heard. When they look from side to side, nothing moves; it looks like they are standing before a postcard of a dead city.
It's impossible to know if the chill they feel upon stepping off the bus comes from the change in temperature or the strangeness of seeing the city this way for the first time.
"Isn't someone supposed to be here to meet us?" a boy asks after a few seconds in which no one knows how to react.
"Whatever! I just wanna go home!" someone replies.
The youths, mostly confused—yet indifferent, or at least trying to appear so—begin to take out their phones to call their parents to pick them up.
"There's no signal on my phone?!" a girl comments worriedly from amidst the others.